This invention relates in general to exercise equipment and in particular to a low impact exercise device that simulates a full range of natural striding motion including aggressive striding. It also relates to a striding exercise device that is useful in performing upper body workouts.
The prior art includes a great number of exercise devices that simulate walking, a form of low muscle stress exercise that nearly everyone can perform The beneficial effects achievable by walking are in proportion to the effort expended. The well-known treadmill exercise machine exemplifies such apparatus.
Recently a variety of exercise devices that impose low or minimal impact on the user's knees and legs have become popular. While such devices generally provide some aerobic benefit, they often constrain the user's legs into a very unnatural locked-knee position. In such devices, the user stands on swingably mounted platforms that, for safety reasons, are interlocked to prevent both platforms from simultaneously moving in the same direction. While the interlocking reduces the danger of the user being placed in a precarious position, it unnaturally constrains the user's arm and leg motions and precludes long, natural, as well as aggressive, striding movements.
Handles that are linked to the foot platforms, either directly or indirectly, assist the user in maintaining balance. Even so, the combined foot and arm movements of the devices rarely simulate a natural striding motion. While a treadmill does simulate walking, it imposes impact loading on the user's body, especially on the knees and legs. For many users, this impact loading is undesirable and may even be detrimental.
The prior art also includes a number of so-called cross country skiing machines which attempt to simulate the body movements of a cross country skier. While such machines can provide a very strenuous low impact workout for the user, they are difficult to master, requiring a degree of user skill and balance similar to the sport itself.
The prior art devices generally constrain the range of movement to a small safety zone to preclude the user getting into an unbalanced and precarious position. The limited movements permitted in these devices do not allow for a long, natural striding motion, much less aggressive striding motions, nor do they enable any significant weight transfer to the arms, which is necessary to obtain an upper body workout.
With the exercise device of the present invention, a full range of striding motion is very closely simulated while impact on the user's body is practically eliminated. Significantly, the aerobic effect experienced is readily controllable by merely accelerating the striding action and lengthening the stride, precisely as can be done when aggressively striding. However, unlike striding, with the inventive device a user can lean backward and forward to transfer significant weight to his am without loss of balance or control This not only increases the aerobic effort and enables an upper body workout, but also varies the muscle groups that are being exercised.
The inventive device is very comfortable and easy to learn and use, imparting a feeling of balance and stability to even the most novice of users. It also readily accommodates users of different strength and agility. Further, different muscles may be exercised by elevating on one's toes, bending one's knees or by grasping different portions of the handles. The handles move integrally with the foot platforms, in a natural manner, without requiring any linkage or interconnection between the handles or between the foot platforms, which are independently swingable.